Mushroom Coral

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Mushroom Coral

Photograph by Carlos Bombardelli, My Shot

The mushroom coral uses this amazing Technicolor mouth to feast on something no other coral is known to favor—adult jellyfish. It’s thought that the corals simply wait for jellies to run into them, then snare them with stinging tentacles and shove them into their mouths. Unlike reef-building corals, mushroom corals—among the world’s biggest polyps at up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide—live as individuals.